Background

Instructions to Applicants: Click on the?"Apply now"?button. Input your information in the appropriate Sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume and motivation. Upon completion of the first page, please hit "submit application" tab at the end of the page. Please ensure that CV or P11 and the Cover letter are combined in?one file. 

The following documents shall be required from the applicants: 

Personal CV or P11, indicating all past positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations (month/year), the qualifications, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) the most recent professional references of previous supervisors. References may also include peers. 

A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) indicating why the candidate considers him-/herself to be suitable for the position. 

Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as?reports, presentations, publications, campaigns or other materials. 

Office/Unit/Project Description

UNDP is a founding cosponsor of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), a partner of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, a signatory of the WHO-led SDG3 Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-Being for All, and a co-sponsor of several other international health partnerships. UNDP’s work on HIV, health and development leverages UNDP’s core strengths and mandates in sustainable development, governance, poverty reduction and climate. UNDP delivers support to countries in three areas of HIV and health: reducing the inequalities that drive disease, promoting effective and inclusive governance for health and building resilient and sustainable systems for health.  UNDP helps countries to mainstream attention to HIV and health into action on gender, poverty, governance, financing, and the broader effort to achieve and sustain the Sustainable Development Goals. UNDP works with partners to address the interactions between governance, human rights, and health responses, especially for those left behind.  UNDP also supports countries in effective implementation of complex, multilateral and multisectoral health projects, while simultaneously investing in capacity development so that national and local partners can assume these responsibilities over time. The UNDP/Global Fund partnership is an important part of this work, facilitating access to resources for action on SDG 3 by countries that face constraints in directly receiving and managing such funding.  UNDP partners with countries, WHO and other partners in responding to health emergencies and HIV and health dimensions of crisis/post-crisis situations.

Institutional Arrangement

The Communications Specialist will work under the direct supervision of the Programme Manager PEPFAR, based in New York, USA.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

Enabling environments are critical for effective HIV responses and for achieving and sustaining epidemic control. Multiple analyses show that protective laws for people living with HIV and key populations contribute to better HIV outcomes, while criminalization of these populations and discriminatory laws undermine success. In the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending Inequalities and Getting on Track to End AIDS by 2030 and the UNAIDS Global AIDS Strategy 2021-2026, countries committed to urgent and transformative action in this area. At the core of this commitment is a new set of 10-10-10 targets, which call on countries to repeal punitive and discriminatory laws, policies and practices that target key populations, and to implement supportive laws, policies and practices that combat stigma, discrimination, and gender-based violence. 

UNDP is starting a new intiative with the overall goal to advance progress towards achieving the 10-10-10 targets for key populations in PEPFAR countries by 2025. As a result of this two-year initiative, countries will adopt additional innovative strategies and tactics, and/or scale existing strategies, to counter discriminatory and punitive laws impeding access by key populations to HIV services across 50 PEPFAR countries.

Central to the initiative is implementing a communications strategy to build on key-population-led and -focused efforts to reform laws on criminalization and discriminatory laws, with direct support for key population leadership, capacity, and advocacy and their meaningful engagement. Promote stakeholder engagement will be critical, and the project will establish a multi-stakeholder key-population-led digital platform across 50 PEPFAR countries to share lessons and good practices.

Reporting to the Programme Manager PEPFAR, the Communications Specialist will be responsible for:

Communications with the following key responsibilities:

• Implement and monitor a communication strategy, with the meaningful engagement of key populations, to promote and disseminate strategies, tactics, and approaches to counter discriminatory and punitive laws, and achieve relevant decriminalization.
• Coordinate production of internal and external communication materials including publications, videos, fact sheets, brochures and exhibition materials, among others in coordination with UNDP and partners.
• Provide oversight and guidance on social media communication and (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and, etc.) content creation, sharing and promotion.
• Provides innovative content and approaches to drive high visibility engagement through the channels and initiatives managed by UNDP.
• Contribute to and facilitate implementation of a coherent branding strategy at global, regional and country levels with consistent messaging, and contribute to the broader UNDP HIV and health Branding and Communication Strategies.

Partnership-building and Knowledge Management with the following key responsibilities:

• Manage a multi-stakeholder key-population-led digital platform to share lessons and good practices.
• Support the Programme Manager in cross-regional exchange of knowledge by collaborating with policy teams in Regional Hubs to research, develop and share knowledge-based tools and guidance to help influence/advance policy dialogue on HIV and human rights. 
• Coordinate the establishment of partnerships with relevant platforms, groups and organizations at the global level to ensure that the knowledge and lessons from the UNDP-PEPFAR initiative are widely used and reflected in relevant programmes, projects, policies, reports, publications etc.
• Support the Programme Manager to maintain effective partnership and working relationships with initiative partners, UNDP country offices and other relevant stakeholders, leveraging the UNDP Community of Practice on HIV and Health and the UNDP-Global Fund partnership.
• Coordinate sharing of best practices and lessons at global conferences and events.
• Perform any other duties as may be assigned by the Programme Manager PEPFAR

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience